Young Zuw-jayla Suares-Sirvania cutting the ribbon of the newly renovated Roman Catholic Rectory on St. Eustatius on Sunday, September 29.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The official blessing of the newly renovated Roman Catholic Rectory took place Sunday, September 29, in the presence of church officials from St. Eustatius and the neighbouring islands St. Maarten and Saba.
President of the St. Martin of Tours Parish and member of the St. Maarten Parish Council Claudwick Peterson congratulated everyone who had a hand in constructing Father Simon Wilson’s new home.
“A special thank you goes out to contractor and architect Ricardo ‘Thatchie’ Fortin, Jr. Mr. Fortin is a former student of mine, whom we are very proud of,” Peterson said.
He also commended the Parish Council, the Finance Committee, Father Wilson, and all those who have “diligently” worked behind the scenes, and he congratulated the people of Statia and in particular the Roman Catholic community on their new acquired rectory.
Wilson said the next undertaking will be the renovation of the 109-year-old church building which is estimated to cost US $500,000. He said he is unsure where the funds will come from, but stated: “As the saying goes, in God we trust and with God all things are possible. It’s going to be a lot of work to raise that amount of funds,” he said.
Wilson thanked Sixto Martina and his team from the Statia Parish Council for doing an “extremely good” job. “I pray that everything works out according to God’s will and I guess we will have a very beautiful renovated Roman Catholic Church in the future.”
The church building was built in 1910, and is a designated monument. “This means you can get funds from Monuments Care Foundation (‘Monumentenzorg’) to renovate your buildings. We are blessed because our entire church compound, which includes the church, the rectory, the old school, the nuns' house and everything else fits within that project,” Wilson explained.
He reminded that Monuments Care Foundation provides support in the form of a loan, which will have to be paid back. However, he said he was hopeful that the necessary funds would be obtained so that the church could be renovated. He said Statia’s church was the only one in the diocese in bad shape.
Contractor Fortin handed over the keys of the newly renovated rectory to Wilson. The ribbon was cut by young Zuw-jayla Suares-Sirvania. Afterwards, all attendees were invited to lunch on the church grounds.
